Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

As Cases Of Mumps Spike, Questions Are Raised About Effectiveness Of Vaccine

Also, hepatitis, the impacts of climate change, the D.C. HIV rally, celiac disease, replicating the female reproductive system and other stories make public health news today.

Stat:
Mumps Outbreaks Are Raising Concerns About Vaccine
Last year marked the second-highest annual case count of mumps in more than a quarter-century. All but 13 states have reported mumps so far this year. The reason for the resurgence is a mystery. But officials fear that it could undermine the public’s faith in immunizations, critical public health tools that are already under attack from people who believe vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases against which they protect. In Arkansas, health departments sometimes resorted to giving extra doses of the mumps vaccine to try to build immunity in certain people — and some of them still got sick. (Branswell, 3/29)

Los Angeles Times:
Hepatitis B And C Can Be Wiped Out In The U.S. By 2030. Here’s How
Health experts have devised an aggressive plan to stamp out a viral disease that is fueling a sharp rise in liver cancer in the United States and killing 20,000 Americans per year. Their national strategy for eliminating two types of hepatitis by 2030 hinges on persuading the federal government to purchase the rights to one or more of the costly new medications that can essentially cure hepatitis C. (Healy, 3/28)

NPR:
Scientists Replicate Female Reproductive System In A Dish To Aid Research
Scientists say they've made a device in the lab that can mimic the human female reproductive cycle. The researchers hope the device, assembled from living tissue, will lead to new treatments for many medical problems that plague some women, ranging from fibroids and endometriosis to infertility, miscarriages and gynecologic cancers. (Stein, 3/28)

Marketplace:
Self-Learning Machines Predict Life And Death
We've heard it before: learning machines, or artificial intelligence, is going to change the tech industry. These smart algorithms are going to take incredibly huge data sets and come up with incredible things to do with them. But what happens when those data sets are our bodies, and the incredible things they predict are our deaths? (Wood and McHenry, 3/28)

The Washington Post:
This Woman Is Growing A Second Skeleton — And It’s Locking Her Inside Her Own Body
Jasmin Floyd was on her way to kindergarten in northeastern Connecticut, buckled into the back seat of her mother's car. On the way, she called out, “Mommy, my neck hurts,” her mother, RoJeanne Doege, recently recalled. Doege said she peered through the rearview mirror and tried to reassure her, “Honey, it's probably just how you slept. ”But it wasn't — and, not long after that, Floyd's father noticed that their 5-year-old's neck was tilted ever so slightly to the side. (Bever, 3/28)

Cleveland Plain Dealer:
BrainGate 2 Implants Allow Paralyzed Cleveland Veteran To Move Limb
Most of us can employ our nerves and muscles to nibble a snack or swig a latte without much effort. But for Bill Kochevar, who is paralyzed below the shoulders, being able to do these things for the first time in years was mind-blowing. Experimental implants called BrainGate2 allowed Kochevar to grasp a cup for the first time since he suffered a major spinal cord injury in a 2006 bike accident. (Washington, 3/28)

Kaiser Health News:
March Madness Vasectomies Encourage Guys To Take One For The Team
Doctors say it all started eight years ago, when a urology clinic in Oregon ran an ad promoting the benefits of scheduling a vasectomy in March. “You go in for a little snip, snip and come out with doctor’s orders to sit back and watch nonstop basketball,” the voice-over promised. “If you miss out on this, you’ll end up recovering during a weekend marathon of ‘Desperate Housewives’!” (Dembosky, 3/28)

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